Aix Marseille Univ, IRD, SSA, AP-HM, VITROME, Marseille, France; IHU-Méditerranée Infection, Marseille, France.
Institute of Veterinary and Agronomic Sciences, Mohamed Cherif Messaadia University, Souk-Ahras, Algeria.
Ticks Tick Borne Dis. 2022 Jan;13(1):101858. doi: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2021.101858. Epub 2021 Nov 5.
The identification of ticks and their associated pathogens is important for knowledge on tick-borne diseases. The objective of this study was to use morphological, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and/or molecular biology tools to identify ticks collected from turtles in north-eastern Algeria, as well as to investigate the microorganisms associated with these ticks. A total of 471 adult ticks were collected and identified morphologically as Hyalomma aegyptium, of which 248 (52.7%) were female and 223 (47.3%) were male. amongst them, 230 specimens were randomly selected for molecular and MALDI-TOF MS analysis. Molecular biology confirmed that our ticks were Hy. aegyptium. MALDI-TOF MS analysis revealed that 100% of the spectra were of excellent quality. Four spectra were selected to update our own database MALDI-TOF MS arthropod. The blind test of the 226 remaining spectra showed that all ticks were correctly identified, with scores ranging from 1.774 to 2.655 with a mean of 2.271 ± 0.16 of which, 223 (98.6%) had log score value (LSV)>1.8. Molecular biology screening showed that the ticks carried the DNA of Borrelia turcica, Rickettsia africae, Rickettsia aeschlimannii, Rickettsia sibirica mongolitimonae and with the Anaplasmataceae were close to a potentially new, undescribed Ehrlichia sp. This study confirms that MALDI-TOF MS is a reliable tool for the identification of ticks and that ticks collected from turtles in Algeria are carriers of several species of microorganisms which may be responsible for diseases in humans and animals.
蜱虫的鉴定及其相关病原体的鉴定对于了解蜱传疾病至关重要。本研究的目的是使用形态学、基质辅助激光解吸电离飞行时间质谱（MALDI-TOF MS）和/或分子生物学工具来鉴定从阿尔及利亚东北部的海龟身上采集的蜱虫，并调查与这些蜱虫相关的微生物。共采集了 471 只成年蜱虫，经形态学鉴定为埃及血蜱，其中 248 只为雌性（52.7%），223 只为雄性（47.3%）。其中，随机选择了 230 个标本进行分子和 MALDI-TOF MS 分析。分子生物学证实我们的蜱虫为埃及血蜱。MALDI-TOF MS 分析显示，100%的谱图质量极佳。选择了 4 个谱图来更新我们自己的 MALDI-TOF MS 节肢动物数据库。对其余 226 个谱图的盲测表明，所有蜱虫均被正确识别，得分范围为 1.774 至 2.655，平均得分为 2.271 ± 0.16，其中 223 个（98.6%）的对数得分值（LSV）>1.8。分子生物学筛选表明，蜱虫携带土拉弗朗西斯菌、非洲立克次体、阿氏立克次体、西伯利亚立克次体蒙古亚种和无形体科的 DNA，与一种潜在的新的未描述的埃立克体属非常接近。本研究证实 MALDI-TOF MS 是一种可靠的蜱虫鉴定工具，从阿尔及利亚海龟身上采集的蜱虫携带多种微生物，可能导致人类和动物疾病。
